Green Speech #33

Green Speech #33 –Loshon Hara Causes Unnecessary Fights
In general, don't repeat what Someone else said

The president of a school is unhappy with the executive director’s efforts in an unsuccessful school function. He conveys his feelings to a board member who relates the conversation to the executive director. The executive director responds furiously: “He said that the event was a failure because of me? He is the one who never attended any meetings!”

The board member wastes no time in reporting this response to the president. The president sends the volleyball of blame over the net by saying, “I never came to the meetings because he never called me to confirm them!” The executive director then sends the ball back by saying that if the school would hire a secretary for him, then there would finally be someone who had the time to confirm appointments and meetings.

Before anyone realizes what is happening, the disagreement has snowballed into a full-scale machlokes, all because of one small sentence that should not have been repeated, and certainly not to the subject of the comment.

Rechilus is the name given for gossip - saying something over what someone else said or did. It is in the broader category named Loshon Hara (improper speech) - It causes much fighting.

When this happens a person is transgressing two negative commandments instead of one.

In addition to the sin of loshon hora, he has transgressed the commandment “Do not be like Korach and his assembly” (Bamidbar 17:5) in which the Torah warns us to reject the ways of Korach, who stirred up much strife and controversy against the leadership of Moshe Rabbeinu.